Elias Kassell

Elias Kassell
Nationality	British
Occupation	Entrepreneur, software developer
Known for	Co-founder and CEO of Brickwise
Website	https://www.eliaskassell.com/

Elias Kassell is a British entrepreneur and software developer who co-founded Brickwise, an artificial intelligence-powered property management platform designed for landlords and estate agents. In 2025, Brickwise was accepted into Y Combinator, the prominent Silicon Valley startup accelerator, and received $500,000 in funding. Kassell built the initial version of the Brickwise product using the no-code platform Lovable, notably gaining admission to Y Combinator without having written a single line of traditional code. Based in the United Kingdom, Kassell has described himself as "an entrepreneur with a programming addiction" and has led the company's product development and scaling efforts as it expanded its customer base across the property management sector.

Career

Early Entrepreneurial Activities

Kassell has identified himself as an entrepreneur and programmer, maintaining a personal website since at least 2019. Details regarding his specific entrepreneurial activities prior to founding Brickwise are limited in available sources, though his co-founder Ismail Jeilani and early collaborator Gregory Janik have been described as "startup veterans," suggesting Kassell operated within an established network of technology entrepreneurs before launching the company.

Founding of Brickwise

In 2025, Kassell co-founded Brickwise alongside Ismail Jeilani. The company developed an AI-powered property management tool that automates maintenance requests, handles tenant calls and messages around the clock, and follows up by coordinating with contractors. The platform was designed to serve both individual landlords and estate agents managing property portfolios.

What distinguished Brickwise's founding story was the manner in which Kassell and Jeilani built their initial product. Rather than writing traditional software code, the co-founders used Lovable, a no-code development platform, to construct the prototype that they presented to Y Combinator during the application process. According to a report by Sifted, the European technology publication, Kassell and Jeilani "impressed famed accelerator YC with a product they built in Lovable" without having written a single line of conventional code. This approach attracted attention within the European technology startup community as an example of how AI and no-code tools were lowering barriers to entry for new technology companies.

Y Combinator Acceptance and Funding

Brickwise was accepted into Y Combinator's accelerator program and received $500,000 in funding, which Kassell announced publicly in October 2025. In his announcement, Kassell credited Lewis Hemens with providing an introduction and acknowledged his co-founders: Jeilani, whom he described as "the most genius marketing guru I've ever met," and Gregory Janik, whom he referred to as his "new partner."

At the time of its Y Combinator listing, Brickwise had two employees. The company was categorized within Y Combinator's portfolio as operating in the proptech (property technology) sector, with a focus on applying artificial intelligence to property management workflows.

Product Development and Scaling

Following the Y Combinator acceptance, Kassell led the company's product development efforts and worked to expand its customer base. In a LinkedIn post from January 2026, Kassell described an intensive period of development during the Christmas holiday season, noting that he had six new customers preparing to go live on a new version of the application that "didn't exist 6 weeks ago." The post indicated that Kassell had used the quieter holiday period to accelerate development work on the platform.

Kassell has been publicly candid about the challenges of scaling the product. In a LinkedIn post from early 2026, he recounted an experience in which the Brickwise platform completely broke two minutes before a custom demonstration for a prospect with over 400,000 property units. He described the experience as feeling "AWFUL" and explained that the incident prompted him to implement more rigorous testing and quality assurance processes beyond basic demonstration preparations. The anecdote illustrated both the scale of potential customers the company was pursuing and the engineering challenges inherent in rapidly scaling an AI-powered product.

The company's core product offering, as described on its Y Combinator profile and job listings, centered on automating maintenance requests for property managers. The AI system was designed to handle tenant communications through calls and messages on a 24/7 basis, then follow up by coordinating with contractors to resolve maintenance issues.

Personal Life

Kassell is based in the United Kingdom. He has maintained a personal website at eliaskassell.com since at least 2019, on which he describes himself as "an entrepreneur with a programming addiction."

Recognition

Brickwise's acceptance into Y Combinator in 2025 represented a notable achievement for the company and its founders. Y Combinator is one of the most selective startup accelerators globally, and acceptance into the program is considered a significant milestone for early-stage technology companies. The manner in which Kassell and Jeilani built Brickwise — using a no-code platform rather than traditional programming — received particular attention in the European technology press. Sifted, a Financial Times-backed publication focused on European technology startups, featured the story of how the co-founders gained entry to Y Combinator without writing a single line of traditional code, highlighting the approach as an example of a broader shift in how technology products can be built and launched.

The company's approach also served as a case study for the capabilities of no-code and AI-assisted development tools, demonstrating that products built without conventional programming could meet the quality and innovation standards required for acceptance into elite accelerator programs.